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How to watch the solar eclipse on Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter

Another dark shadow is about to descend upon the United States.

Snapchat’s solar eclipse Bitmoji
Snapchat’s solar eclipse Bitmoji
Snap

A rare solar eclipse will cast a massive shadow across the U.S. on Monday, temporarily plunging wide swaths of America into darkness as the moon blocks out the sun.

It’s a pretty big deal. A total solar eclipse hasn’t occurred in the lower 48 states since 1979, according to the Washington Post. The eclipse starts at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT.

As a result, a lot of Americans are traveling to watch the eclipse and buying things like eclipse glasses. Naturally, all of the social media apps Americans spend time on are preparing for the eclipse in their own ways. If you don’t plan to see the eclipse in person and you’re looking for ways to enjoy a temporary break from U.S. politics, here’s what you can expect from Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.

Facebook

Facebook’s solar eclipse notification.
Facebook

The social network will push NASA’s livestream of the eclipse into users’ News Feeds with a special notification for those in the U.S. NASA will also go live with a 360-degree video from Charleston, S.C., and NASA also created some special camera filters for the occasion you can find in Facebook’s built-in camera.

A bunch of other local and national new organizations plan to stream the eclipse live on Facebook, including CNN and NBC News.

Snapchat

Snapchat will compile a “Total Solar Eclipse” Our Story beginning on Sunday and continuing through Monday’s eclipse, which means it’s going to be taking photos and videos from users across the country and putting them into a montage for people to watch. The Story will also include Snaps from NASA and the Department of the Interior. Snap has also created some special photo filters for the event, including some that will only be available to users in the eclipse’s “path of totality.”

You can follow that path of totality on Snap’s new map. If you have friends standing in places where the eclipse will cast a shadow, their Bitmoji will change on the map so that it looks as though they’re staring up at the sun.

Twitter

Twitter has an official live partnership with The Weather Channel to stream the eclipse live to users, and the feed will include a special timeline full of eclipse-specific tweets. It’s the same kind of setup Twitter uses for all of its livestreaming programs, including presidential debates and NFL games.

YouTube

A bunch of publishers are planning to stream the eclipse live on YouTube, including NASA, PBS and the Washington Post.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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